AirAsia traffic climbed 7% in 2014

AirAsia continued to experience rising passenger traffic in 2014, driven by its operations in Thailand.

The group, comprising the short-haul low-cost carriers in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and India, carried a combined total of 45.68 million passengers last year, 7% more than in 2013.

But this growth was driven mostly by Thai AirAsia. The Bangkok-based LCC experienced a 16% jump in traffic last year, to 12.21m passengers. The group’s largest unit, Malaysia AirAsia, experienced a 1% rise in traffic to 22.14m passengers, while Indonesia AirAsia’s traffic remained flat at 7.85m.

The smaller Manila-based unit, Philippines AirAsia, rose 36% to 3.03m passengers, while no comparative results were available for AirAsia India, carried 345,300 passengers since its commenced operations in June 2014.

AirAsia added 18 new Airbus A320 aircraft in 2014, boosting its capacity by more than 3,200 seats. Of this total, nine new aircraft were delivered to Malaysia AirAsia, five to Thai AirAsia and three to AirAsia India. The group now operates a fleet of 172 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft.